In milling, such as contour milling, of material or a workpiece of, for instance, titanium, steel, aluminum, casting or another material, it is since previously known to use so-called center cutting milling tools where one or a plurality of cutting edges reach up to and are terminated in the rotation axis of the milling tool. The milling tool is connectable to a rotatable spindle or holder. Such center cutting milling tools are advantageous in precision contour milling and finishing, in particular at high speeds, such as high feeding and high tooth feed. A known example of center cutting milling tools of the type contour milling tools, such as radius end mill, is the so-called ball nose end mill. The ball nose end mill may have replaceable milling inserts, which may be invertible/indexable, or the ball nose end mill may be of a solid design where the cutting edges are integrated with the milling cutter body. In contour milling, the milling tool rotates in a direction of rotation around its rotation axis at the same time as the workpiece is fed in relation to the milling tool in a feeding direction. In finishing, commonly the milling tool is fed in relation to the workpiece along and against a surface of the workpiece. A ball nose end mill is often used with a feeding direction that forms an essentially perpendicular angle to the rotation axis of the end mill, but other feeding directions are also possible.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0245946 discloses a solid radius end mill of cubic boron nitride. International Publication No. A1-00/29153 discloses a solid ball nose end mill. European Patent Application No. B1-0 985 478 discloses a radius end mill having an indexable milling insert. European Patent Application No. A1-1 252 955 discloses an indexable milling insert intended for a radius end mill. U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,576 and Japanese Application No. 2005-319558 disclose a radius end mill having replaceable milling inserts. U.S. Pat. No. 7,226,249 discloses a replaceable milling insert for a radius end mill. U.S. Pat. No. 6,497,540 discloses a radius end mill.